Interaction with Personal Virtual Assistants (PVAs) is becoming part of everyday life through ambient devices in our homes, at the work place, and on the go through mobile phones, wearables, etc. Currently, most interactions with PVAs are in the form of asking questions and receiving simple answers. As we move beyond the question and answer type of engagement to more back and forth conversations mimicking a human assistant, it becomes important for PVAs to show empathy during the engagement.
Generally speaking, PVAs' responses and interactions tend to be robotic, mono-tonal, and impersonal and sometimes insensitive. As a result, user engagement suffers. An empathetic response from a PVA (personalized for the user based on previous interactions) will drive outcomes such as more engaging interactions, increased user satisfaction, and increased usage.